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Youth-Led Initiatives and the Future of Democracy: A Conversation with McDonald Lewanika

Governments and institutions have a crucial role in supporting and empowering young people in their efforts to promote democratic change and innovation. International Democracy Day Brussels is an annual event that gathers organizations and experts to celebrate democracy and discuss its challenges. The theme for this year is ‘Empowering the next generation,’ focusing on young people’s essential role in advancing democracy and ensuring their voices are included in decisions that profoundly impact their world. In this year's event, McDonald Lewanika, the Regional Director for East and Southern Africa at Accountability Lab, shared his insights on youth-led initiatives, the state of [...]

2023-12-18T16:05:55+00:0020th November 2023|

Transforming Transparency: How HackCorruption Winners Could Revolutionize Government Procurement in Namibia

One of our first winning HackCorruption teams has local municipalities interested in their winning idea - an online procurement tool that fights corruption. Looking at government institutions in Namibia, Amon Peter, Baptista Joao, Farida Junior Kyababa, Linda McLeod, and Saudai Sapi created a product that enables a transparent view of the procurement process—allowing both government officials and the public to have a complete overview of the awarding of contracts. It's just over a year since their victory, and we caught up with Farida and Saudi to learn the secrets behind their team's success and how they have used the experience [...]

2023-10-09T12:52:49+00:001st October 2023|

Learning To Push Beyond the Boundaries of Comfort

By Leah Persons When I first started my summer internship with Accountability Lab, I was very excited about the work I would be doing, the skills I would develop, and the people I would meet. As an International Studies major from a small college in Georgia, I was very intrigued by AL’s important global efforts of citizen engagement, accountability, and anti-corruption. I was able to learn about and help with these efforts alongside the Lab’s amazing Global team. However, my internship at AL did something more: it taught me to push myself out of my comfort zone.  Firstly, I had [...]

2023-10-26T07:57:32+00:0028th September 2023|

Mobilizing Civic Voter Education in Liberia

According to the National Elections Commission (NEC), Liberia’s current number of first-time voters is just over 20 percent. This figure demonstrates the need to prioritize civic voter education, especially for first-time voters in rural communities. On 21-22 June, Accountability Lab Liberia hosted a training session to build the civic and voter education capacity of 30 journalists and leaders of youth-led organizations from Counties including Bong, Grand Bassa, Lofa, Margibi Montserrado, and Nimba. The training session aimed to equip the participants with skills to lead creative civic engagement campaigns and build working relationships for cross-collaboration, learning, and advocacy. The training focused [...]

2023-10-02T19:03:44+00:0017th August 2023|

Why climate finance needs greater transparency and accountability

We face an existential poly-crisis related to energy, debt, food, climate, health, and security. Collective action is needed to address these challenges and to build global support for the green accountability agenda. The role of international financial institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is critical to promoting transparency in climate finance and addressing the inherent corruption risks. But the quantity of their funding is just one element of this- the quality of that funding is equally as important but is largely missing from policy debates around these issues.  Progress Multinational Development Banks (MDBs) have [...]

2023-08-14T12:10:39+00:001st August 2023|

Rebuilding Accountability Chains in Zimbabwe

By Alois Nyamazana Broken accountability chains lie at the heart of Zimbabwe’s governance problems. Lack of accountability in Zimbabwe has led to the squandering of precious public resources, and a collapse in the systems that are meant to fulfill citizens’ social and economic rights such as access to clean water, health, education, and adequate food. Citizens, particularly the vulnerable, bear the burden of failed accountability mechanisms, in the face of a deteriorating economy. Compounding this burden is corruption with recent events such as the COVID-gate scandal, in which government officials abused COVID-19 resources by flouting procurement and procedural regulations. A [...]

2022-09-05T09:37:34+00:005th September 2022|

Groups meet FSRC, police, seek road ethics reform

The Accountability Lab Nigeria, in conjunction with the Akin Fadeyi Foundation, on Thursday, held a roundtable discussion on road ethics reform with the Federal Road Safety Corps, at the Federal Capital Territory Sector Command in Abuja. Present at the occasion focused on improving road behaviours of drivers and security officials that would lead to reducing corrupt practices on roads, were officials of the FRSC, police officers, officials of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, and some driving school instructors. The Country Director, Accountability Lab Nigeria, Odeh Friday, stressed that Nigerian road users could improve on their road usage ethics [...]

2022-09-07T07:37:11+00:0025th August 2022|

Practical Ways CSOs Can Manage Closing Civic Space

Civic space has been closing everywhere for a long time - from the UK to Mexico to Zimbabwe - and represents, along with the corruption that accompanies it, one of the biggest threats to democracy everywhere. For citizens, and particularly for those of us interested in free, open societies, this can be an existential threat - not a day passes without protesters being killed, journalists going missing or activists being murdered. For a translocal network like Accountability Lab this is also a question of survival, so we are doing everything we can to understand how we can proactively manage the [...]

2022-07-28T11:42:12+00:0013th July 2022|

Accountability Music Awards opens nominations for 2021

Nominations have officially opened for the 2021 Accountability Music Awards (AMAs). The 2021 AMAs are a collaboration between Accountability Lab, the ONE Campaign and the African Union to honour African musicians whose music calls out the vice of corruption or advocates for good governance through the fight against corruption. By providing a platform for conscious musicians, the AMAs aim to galvanise citizens in demanding greater transparency and accountability from institutions, corporations and the African citizenry. The campaign also recognises the critical role that music can play in getting citizens involved in anti-corruption reform by shifting norms and behaviours. Nominations can be submitted [...]

2021-10-11T10:50:15+00:007th October 2021|

Public Trust and the Nigerian Police: The Abba Kyari Story

The recent suspension of the once-celebrated police officer, Abba Kyari, on suspicion of links to an international fraudster, has set off a tidal wave of socio-political debate. Lack of trust in the police was already a widely accepted consensus among Nigerians prior to this latest indictment, owing to many reports of corruption, ineptitude, and impunity. The country is still sour from the nationwide #EndSARS protests against police brutality; even more so from the grim Lekki tollgate shootings that followed. Nowadays, many citizens no longer look to the nation’s security apparatus for protection, but rather pray not to encounter them in [...]

2021-08-25T13:00:06+00:0025th August 2021|
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